A Surprise (Plus: Budget Livin')

Sunday, February 03, 2013

So I am involved in a program where I get weighed weekly (it's not WW or any other weight loss thing, it's a study I'm participating in). No one was more surprised than me when I weighed in at 166.5 (that's -2 since last week). In all honesty, while I have been making an effort to eat better, I didn't think I was doing anything THAT different (minus frozen pizzas, but who's counting). Also, it's been quite a while that the scale hasn't moved UP. Yea, the week before was SLIGHTLY down, but that coulda been anything.

Now that it is moving back down I am very relieved. I was just at that weight where I was edging into obesity. So now I'm just "overweight". And of course you can say whatever you like about the BMI scale being inaccurate but I'm still not a body builder and it is still a pretty good guide for a regular gal like myself.

There is nothing quite as motivating as getting some results. I feel really good about the 3.5 lbs I've lost since I got sick of getting fatter n fatter. Having done the math, I've gained about a pound a week since the move. I shouldn't be surprised. I have a lifetime of eating from boredom (seriously need some hobbies), and being in a new place with nothing to do is an over-eaters paradise.

Part of my plan is to get all the animal products out of the house. I'm going to keep our kitchen as close to vegan as I can. D is happy to do without the meat stuff but I haven't found a good faux-cheese for his sandwiches so we may stick to the real deal until then, though I did make a pretty nice tofu scramble so I feel confident that we can do without eggs. We'll see (i.e. I'm kind of lazy).

Additionally, we're on a super duper budget. Last night I cooked with DRY BEANS for the first time. Don't laugh. They are intimidating. Also, they have all these weird rules about rinsing and soaking. You know what is easy? Canned beans. So I bought a bag of dry lentils (which require no soaking, btw) and I made a sweet potato-kidney bean-lentil-leftover sausage chili (which is not very chili like but quite tasty regardless).

Taking the budget into account I recognize that dry beans are a good money saving start. Other items at the store include bananas, onions, peppers. These seem to be the cheapest per-pound items, so we will likely eat these a lot until we have more income. Further, I'll be cleaning out the pantry. This should be interesting.

Cool, I want to participate in a weight loss study, how did you get involved? I hate to say it but good vegan cheese is super hard to come by. I think we're better off just eating less of the real thing or foregoing it entirely. A travesty, I know.

I, too, lost my weight on WW while hubby was in grad school and the babies were young. No money! But I lost my weight, it can be done. I discovered dry beans long ago. They do taste better! If you can find an Indian grocery, there are more beans than you can imagine! And they are cheaper at the international grocery stores than your regular mega-mart.

My Mom always cooks her beans (great northern or pinto) in the crockpot. She parboils them for 10 minutes, drains and then puts them in the crockpot to cook all day. They seem to take less time actively cooking that way.

Beans are easy. Rinse and soak overnight. What's hard about that? And they are way way way cheaper! I still used can beans sometimes, but I try not to.

People swear by a faux cheese called Daiya, but I cannot get it here. I just gave up cheese when I started the vegan thing--which is part of why I have been losing weight I think. I was pretty cheese-dependent.